A banned Angus driver inhaled from a balloon of laughing gas while behind the wheel of a Mercedes at a McDonald’s drive-thru.
Police approached Thomas Forrest, 24, at the McDonald’s in Raploch, Stirling but he took off in the Mercedes C-class “at such speed that it left the ground” going over a speedbump.
Stirling Sheriff Court was told witnesses in a car behind Forrest’s called police.
They had noticed Forrest making “unusual” halts in the lane leading to the drive-thru at around 7.30 pm on December 16 2023.
Prosecutor Christa Lindsay said: “They witnesses repeatedly heard gas being released from a pressurised canister and a McDonald’s worker observed the accused continuously consuming nitrous oxide from an inflated balloon.”
Four wheels left ground
When Forrest saw police had arrived, he accelerated away from them, reaching speeds of approximately 50mph on a stretch of Drip Road subject to traffic calming measures and a 20 limit.
All four wheels left the ground at one point as the Merc hit a speed bump.
Forrest abandoned the car and made off on foot, pursued by police.
A woman in the front passenger seat of the Mercedes identified him as the driver.
Forrest, of William Rodger Drive, Montrose, pled guilty to driving carelessly while inhaling nitrous oxide, disqualified and without insurance.
He had originally faced a charge of dangerous driving but the Crown accepted his plea to the lesser charge.
Prison avoided
The court heard Forrest had “a number of previous convictions” for driving offences, had already been disqualified twice – once at the more serious indictment level – and still had two years’ disqualification to run from a previous case.
Solicitor Sandy Morrison, defending, asked the court not to jail his client, who he said was a working man from a “supportive” family.
Sheriff Neil Kinnear banned him for 33 months, backdated to September, effectively adding a year to his existing ban.
He said he did not want to extend Forrest’s ban “excessively”.
He also placed him under social work supervision for 12 months and ordered him to carry out 135 hours of unpaid work.
He said: “Clearly driving whilst taking nitrous oxide is extremely dangerous but it appears from the [social work] reports I’ve read that you do seem to have realised, with hindsight, how serious this was.”
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